West and Zampella (as well as a number of fellow employees that formed the Infinity Ward Employee Group, which filed a lawsuit against Activision earlier this year) alleged that Activision was withholding money (estimated around $54 million) owed to Infinity Ward staffers as well as not honoring a promise to allow Infinity Ward to branch off and do something different from Call of Duty. From the suit: "In short, Activision withheld the property of the Infinity Ward Employee Group in an attempt to keep the employees hostage so that Activision could reap the benefit of the completion of Modern Warfare 3."

Exit Theatre Mode

Activision fired back with allegations that West and Zampella misused company property and were insubordinate. The publisher claimed that the Infinity Ward heads were operating outside of Activision's interests while benefitting from its financial support, including efforts to recruit team members to form a new developer and start secret negotiations with other publishers for future deals.

The suit will go to trial in May of 2011; it will undoubtedly be a fascinating look inside the machinations of the developer-publisher relationship. The impending trial, though, has not slowed West, Zampella, and many of the Infinity Ward employees that left Activision with them. In April of 2010, West and Zampella formed Respawn Entertainment (get it?) and has partnered with Activision rival Electronic Arts. Respawn, however, was able to secure intellectual property rights for whatever games it creates in this relationship – the direct opposite of the situation that apparently began the unraveling of Infinity Ward at Activision.

The fallout from the Infinity Ward situation has not affected Activision's plans for yearly Call of Duty games. In November 2010, Call of Duty: Black Ops arrives from Treyarch. This is the first time Treyarch has been allowed to break from the World War II setting. Black Ops will take place across multiple conflicts in different time periods – spoiler warning – possibly ranging from Cuba in the 1960s to a fictional future war zone.

Exit Theatre Mode

Because these games cannot be developed on an annual basis with a single developer, Activision also created a new studio called Sledgehammer Games in late 2009 which is hard at work on a new Call of Duty. A date for this entry in the series has not yet been determined, but with Activision intent on an annual cycle, expect to read news about the Sledgehammer Call of Duty sometime in early 2011.

Now solidified as one of the strongest brands in video games, the history (and histrionics) of the Call of Duty series will surely not end here. But what remains to be seen is if the franchise's best days are ahead or behind it.